Disgustingly bloody match that never reached a fever pitch type of pace. With that said, this had its fair share of highlights to make this a good, memorable match. Harris got the early advantage when they brawled outside and then took it to the crowd, with a false finish after a crossbody onto Storm into the audience. Once it got in the ring is when the match became memorable.

Both would wear crimson masks, although neither man honestly took the kinds of shots heavy enough to make the gushing faucets on their faces seem realistic, not after the past year in the business that included classics like Cage of Death, John Cena vs. Umaga, and Jimmy Jacobs vs. BJ Whitmer. Storm’s blood would drip on the floor deep in the match, eventually causing his valet Jacqueline to try bailing him out. Gail Kim would arrive to even the odds for Harris.

The Eye of the Storm through the table wasn’t enough to keep Harris down, so the finish had to be memorable, which it admittedly was. Both men grabbed beer bottles for their final shots, with Harris beating Storm to the punch for the winning pin fall in a match that nobody in attendance will ever forget. ***1/2

Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles

Another good addition to their on-again, off-again rivalry, with about the same length as their Time to Man Up main event. This had about the same pacing behind it, with it being a game of having each other well scouted and using psychology to get ahead. Styles would fake an injury and then deliver an eye poke, so in the end of the match after some quality back-and-forth action, Joe gave him a receipt by feigning a knee injury and finishing off the future Hall of Famer with a Coquina Clutch Suplex. ***1/4

King of the Mountain Qualifier – Hardcore Match
Chris Harris vs. James Storm

Hell of a TV main event that’s on par with the far-more-acclaimed Texas Death Match. Both would eventually bleed, with Harris having blood drip on his chest. The trash can lid shots to the head certainly don’t hold up in a post-Benoit world, but we were just over a couple weeks away from the 9/11 of the industry creeping up on us, so whatever.

Storm thought he had the match won thanks to channeling Jeff Hardy via a Swanton Bomb off a turnbuckle to Harris on an outside table, but that wasn’t enough. They’d continue brawling with Harris eventually spearing Storm through part of the entrance, resulting in the referee mandating a 10-count to get in the ring or he’d rule it a draw. Neither made it in time as Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe arrived at ringside. In obvious move to make everyone forget about the non-finish, Angle and Joe had a brawl as the broadcast went off the air. Why not just have a fucking finish? Whatever. ***1/2

Fun enough match with Kevin Nash having some amusing blurbs while on commentary. Sabin played the default heel, something he had mastered by this point as one half of the Motor City Machine Guns. In fact, with Lethal dethroning him here and Alex Shelley feuding with… Bob Backlund???, there’s no excuse not to implement MCMG in this federation and make them the faces of the tag division now.

Everything was mechanically good with the Nashville crowd into it, so there were no true takeaway highlights in this other than Lethal managing to avoid Sabin’s Cradle Shock. On the other hand, Sabin was unable to avoid the Lethal Combination, thus leading to this title change. ***1/4

Definitely the greatest KOTM of all-time. It looked bad at first with Styles offering to play second-fiddle to Christian, but then Styles decided just to go at this alone. This had all kinds of incredible bombs and highlights, with Styles particularly on point with his offense. He was fantastic in dropkicking the ladder to prevent Harris from hanging the title belt, but then topped himself later when he went on top of the penalty box and Joe followed him. Unlike a scaffold match in which its entirety is spent with those not wanting to take a bump and it making for tedious psychology, the same psychology was applied here but because it was short-lived and had a payoff, it clicked. That payoff would be when Joe yanked Styles off the box roof Iconoclasm-style, forcing Styles to take a bump through the commentary table.

The match would come to Angle and Christian fighting to see who could hang the belt first, and perhaps with this being the company’s 5th anniversary PPV and in its original hometown to boot, Angle should’ve had this struggle against someone more homegrown like Joe or Styles instead. However, Harris channeling Edge to spear Christian off the ladder was tremendously timed, allowing Angle to hang up the belt to retain in this jaw-dropping main event.

In the post-match, Joe offers congratulations to Angle, only to eat an Angle Slam. The company blew its load on their program already, but whatever. ****1/4